Musings on dressmaking

Month: December 2015

This Christmas present wasn’t a sewing project, but it’s too nice not to share. I made this for my in-laws – my mother-in-law has been researching their family trees recently, so it seemed like the perfect idea. It has on it the names of my in-laws, their children and their partners, their granddaughter and the family dog (who is obviously just as important as everyone else).

The most time-consuming part of this project was figuring out where all the names would go. There are a couple of websites that will figure this out for you, but I became obsessed with making sure that everyone who ‘belongs together’ were linked. There was no way for me to communicate who I wanted to be linked on the websites, so I got my Scrabble board out and sat four hours (seriously, it was hours) and figured it out myself. And so, Anthony and I are linked, Anthony’s parents are together, and so on.

After finalising the layout, the rest was actually pretty easy. I figured out which tiles I needed and ordered them – you can get them from all sorts of places, but I got mine from a seller on Amazon. I chose wooden tiles because I prefer the look of them, but you can also get plastic ones. I stuck my tiles onto hessian using a hot glue gun, taking care to keep the names as straight as possible. Every now and then the glue did go through the hessian and stuck to my craft mat underneath, so if you’re going to have a go at this yourself make sure you do it on a suitable surface. You could also use patterned paper or fabric for the background if you’re not keen on hessian. Once I had everything stuck in place it was just a case of finding a frame. I went for a black 12″ x 12″ shadow box frame because I thought the letters on the tiles would pop more in a black frame.

My friend, Kate, appreciates Harry Potter almost as much as I do (almost). I saw a set of cushions a while back (I forget where) and thought I could use felt to make a similar set of Christmas decorations. And so, Harry, Ron and Hermione were born.

They’re all hand stitched with different details. For example, I used chain stitch to make Hermione’s hair look curly, and taught myself French knots to make each character’s eyes an Ron’s freckles. I’ve never been able to get my head around French knots before, so I’m massively proud of myself. I wanted each character to have distinctive details – Ron got his freckles, Hermione got eyelashes and curly hair, and Harry, of course, got his glasses and lightening scar.

I love these! I may need to make a set for myself. And maybe every other Harry Potter fan I know 😀

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you’re all having an enjoyable festive season, filled with fun and laughter and food. Let’s be honest, it’ s really mostly about the food.

I thought I’d use the next few posts to share some of the Christmas gifts I made for friends and family, now that I’m safe to do so. Very few handmade gifts made it this year. I must try to do better next year. One of the few lucky recipients this time around was my nephew. Instead of getting ‘big’ present for him to open on Christmas Day, I had the idea of making him an advent calendar to use throughout December.

I had this idea at the end of October/beginning of November, leaving me very little time to plan and make, so I used a fabric I knew would behave – felt. I knew that if I made 25 pockets the same size I wouldn’t have a hope of lining them all up nicely, so to make things easier (and because I’m lazy) I just made them all different sizes. Each pocket has its own felt decoration to hang off the buttons on the tree. I even made a star to put at the top of the tree. I put a square of Velcro on the back so it would stick. Although I stitched on all the pockets, buttons and tree, I simply stuck the decorations together with fabric glue. Aiden is still only five, so I couldn’t guarantee how gentle he would be with them. Even though Aiden is usually very good, I didn’t want to spend lots of time hand stitching the decorations in case they got ruined. At some point in the future I may upgrade them to stitched ones.

The important thing is Aiden loves it! When he opened it he had a huge smile on his face and said, ‘Wow! That looks really good!’ I’ve been assured by both my brother and sister-in-law that it’s been a roaring success. Apparently, it was the first thing he wanted to do each morning and he gave proper thought into where he’d put the decorations. He’s such a cutie!